The Evolution of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
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THE EVOLUTION OF EMILY BRONTË’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS THROUGH A STUDY OF ITS RECEPTIONS AND ADAPTATIONS by Marianna Gleyzer A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida May 2014 Copyright by Marianna Gleyzer 2014 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express sincere gratitude to her chair, Dr. Buckton, for all his vigilant guidance and encouraging support through the entirety of this thesis process. Also a great special thanks to her committee members, Dr. Golden and Dr. Ulin, for their patience, persistence, and encouragement. The author is also grateful for FAU’s English department, for all their wonderful professors and counselors that help spark ideas and carry them through. Last but not least, the author wishes to thank FAU’s graduate college department, in their dedication to their work by helping graduate students in tackling the tricky thesis formatting process. iv ABSTRACT Author: Marianna Gleyzer Title: The Evolution of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights through a Study of its Receptions and Adaptations Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Oliver Buckton Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2014 This thesis covers the entire range of British and American film adaptations of Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, as no cumulative study on this larger selection has been done thus far. However this will not be the only objective of this thesis, as I create a link between the author’s life to her novel, between the novel to the early criticism, and the criticism to later adaptations, forming a chain of transformation down the ages, to the original novel. By linking the adaptations to the earlier reception of the novel, a change of social interaction will be uncovered as one of its reasons for surviving. These examples of adaptation will be shown to be just as relevant to popular culture history as its original inspiration. This is the result of an unfolding movement of change and mutation, where each adaptation pushes to connect with the past and future. v DEDICATION This manuscript is dedicated to my family, first and foremost. Particularly to my uncomplaining and always accommodating baby sister, who helped with every step of the way, from finding new research to solving formatting secrets. My very dedicated mother, my other darling sister, my father always ready to discuss any tribulation, and my grandparents ready to ease my mind at any second. Family is everything, especially when they define everything for you. THE EVOLUTION OF EMILY BRONTË’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS THROUGH A STUDY OF ITS RECEPTIONS AND ADAPTATIONS Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: A Creator’s Touch, Biographical Connections that do not Wither ............ 13 Chapter Two: Darkness Looms When Critics Call........................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Twice did America ................................................................................... 38 Chapter Four: In the British Fashion, Six Times Over ..................................................... 51 Conclusion: The Revolving Doors of Evolution .............................................................. 91 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 96 vi INTRODUCTION “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors”: this excerpt comes from one of the first reviews of what is now considered a monumental classic (P. Thompson, “Contemporary Reviews of Wuthering Heights”, The Reader’s Guide to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights). This considerably harsh review appeared in the American publication Graham’s Lady’s Magazine in 1848, and happened to be one of the documents pulled out of the author's desk after her death (P. Thompson, “Contemporary Reviews of Wuthering Heights”). The author in question was Emily Brontë and the compound of “unnatural horrors” has since become one of British literature’s most treasured classics, Wuthering Heights. It was indeed a ground-breaking novel in its format and structure; so much so, that it is no surprise that it shocked its first readers and critics. The gothic features in Brontë’s novel essentially developed into their own literary devices, representing a focal theme of the novel that the initial waves of criticism had yet to fully comprehend. However over time, Emily Brontë’s novel, with the emotions it evokes and the haunting landscapes it describes, has been made into a work of art that has changed the course of literature and popular culture. Her novel has evoked something poignant and powerful in the world; for 166 years after its publication, it has foregrounded a darker and more gothic theme to revengeful love or also now considered 1 to be called “mad love” in literature. As critic Arnold Kettle discusses in much detail, his very concept of “mad love” entails an innovative interpretation of love as having a vindictive and destructive quality applied specifically to Brontë’s novel (41). The socially unacceptable idea that two lovers could be as cruel and spiteful to each other as Heathcliff and Catherine are has grown into its own popular and well accepted theme. One that has been shown in over a dozen film adaptations, as well as numerous television series, operas and theater interpretations. In fact, Brontë’s novel has become an unfolding movement of ever-changing adaptations, each one defined not only by its own time period, but also by its culture. From the British versions that were produced to keep the novel ablaze even as decades passed and social standards changed, all the way to America’s own interpretations of Wuthering Heights; each time this one tale is retold, a new world is created. Though the original novel has been modified and updated for every era, it still shows the traces of ideas and themes that Emily Brontë created; only every new version also shows that the means of adaptation are a sort of mutation, necessary to the evolution and survival of what was created so long ago. By analyzing the British and American film adaptations of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, a pattern showing favorite themes and elements can be discerned in the cultures that are so taken by this work. Originating with the author herself, and the time period in which she lived and worked, my thesis explores the factors of Victorian society that drove Brontë to create such a dark and vengeful tale of miserable romance, one that even her peers assumed was written by a man. The menacing backgrounds that have made this novel stand out for its landscapes will be taken into consideration to show 2 how they connect to the actual locations and favorite spots that Brontë visited herself. They inspired something within the author, and thus are a factor in explaining the gothic appeal that Brontë so memorably created, and also help to analyze the mysterious inception of this enthralling narrative. With its critical reception, the novel then crossed over into a world all too terribly ready to criticize this creation into the darkest of antagonism. It is all the more appealing to investigate how those early steps turned this unlikely novel into such a well acknowledged masterpiece, that even time itself could not wither away its darkest themes and landscapes. Therefore, by commencing with an exploration into the author’s enigmatic past, analyzing the particular inspirations for this novel, and examining the validity of its earlier reviews and criticism, this thesis examines the critical and cultural legacy of Brontë’s novel. This legacy now lies vastly outside of the original masterpiece, and therefore deserves its own scrutiny as well. For Wuthering Heights can now be considered a work divided into many diverse mediums such as these films, theater plays, operas, and so on. This makes the novel not just a work adapted over and over again, but instead, there are many different Wuthering Heights created into the outlets of various medias, cultures, and eras. Consequently the novel no longer belongs to the world of literature alone, as it has since evolved into evident ‘afterlives’ that have altered the original reception of the work and possibly even Brontë’s intentions, into dozens of new interpretations and adaptations. By focusing specifically on British and American interpretations, this thesis classifies them through the decades, and formulates an outlook on how two of the major 3 speaking English nations take a classic and mold it to their predilections. This thesis also examines the ways in which each movie adaptation stays true to its origins, and the ways in which it creates its own new masterwork. By focusing on eight specific adaptations from the years of 1939, 1970, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2009 and the latest 2011 version, and classifying them by their cultural background, historical significance, accuracy or fidelity to Brontë’s novel, and the reasons for their financial successes or failures, this thesis begins to uncover the influence of changing social norms on Wuthering Heights. This study of adaptations shows how each film can be seen as its own work of art, but also what claims it can